Background

The Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA) leads and supports the organization in cultivating, building and nurturing strategic relationships and alliances that are essential for advancing and successfully achieving the mission of UNDP. Within BERA, the Communications Group leads and manages external communications through strategy, media, digital communications, marketing, branding and global storytelling.

The UNDP shop (https://shop.undp.org/), managed by the Marketing & Outreach (M&O) Team, was launched in April 2017 as a pilot with the aim of creating a line of useful, innovative products that can help UNDP create awareness for the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Shop has proven to be a continuing success. Under the supervision of the Manager of M&O Team, the selected candidate will support and foster the growth of UNDP Shop by improving fulfilment operations, including logistics and customer management.

The UNDP Shop Operations Consultant will also be involved in the creative aspects related to UNDP’s e-commerce platform by proposing initiatives to increase sales, identifying and proposing new and innovative products, among other tasks related to day-to-day operations. S/he should be able to work with limited resources by suggesting innovative approaches and ideas to maximize reach, engagement, and conversion metrics of campaigns both in owned and paid media.

The UNDP Shop Operations Consultant will be part of the M&O Team, working in close collaboration with the Online & Digital Team and the Management Support Unit within BERA.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duration of the work

Expected duration of the work is from 1 January to 31 December 2020.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Oversee and support the fulfilment of orders and related operations, including returns and customer management;
• Manage inventory and maintain stock;
• Ensure financial viability of the shop’s operations and related initiatives;
• Lead the development of new products, engaging with the rest of the team from ideation stages to final procurement;
• Research and propose innovative ways to improve operations, especially logistics and customs clearance of international orders;
• Analyse traffic, conversion and financial data, informing campaigns and optimizing return on investment of marketing initiatives;
• Propose improvements to the shop to maximize reach and engagement of users, while maximizing operating margins;
• Look for opportunities to make operations “greener” by reducing waste, using recycled materials, and sourcing products that cause minimal or no environmental impact;
• Ensure shop.undp.org site and product pages are up to date and free of errors;
• Keep operations manual up to date.

Expected Deliverables (1 January – 31 December 2020)

• Oversee the fulfilment of orders and customer management;
• Lead the development and first phase of implementation of a new and improved distribution plan for international markets;
• Propose and implement an outreach strategy to power the Shop expansion into corporate markets;
• Grow UNDP’s Handmade collection, coordinating between UNDP Regional Bureaux and Country Offices worldwide;
• Support the recruitment of additional capacity to reach the Shop’s goals.

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will report to the Manager of M&O Team and his/her performance will be assessed against deliverables. The Consultant will also interact with other teams within UNDP as needed. The Manager of M&O Team will hold inception and regular meetings to assess the quality of the deliverables and make necessary adjustments to ensure expected outputs and deliverables are met.

Duty Station:

The consultant is expected to work in UNDP Headquarters located in New York, USA. No travel is envisaged for this assignment. Office space and a laptop computer will be provided.

Payment:

A daily rate based on an all-inclusive daily fee. All-inclusive implies that all costs incurred by the Consultant are factored into the final amount submitted in the proposal. Payments will be made upon submission of a certificate of payment request, at a schedule agreed based on deliverables indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.

UNDP reserves the right to rescind this agreement due to unsatisfactory performance by the contractor.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Innovation: Ability to make new and useful ideas work
• Leadership: Ability to persuade others to follow
• People Management: Ability to improve performance and satisfaction
• Communication: Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform
• Delivery: Ability to get things done
• Knowledge Management: Ability to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge
• Relationship Management: Ability to engage with other parties and forge productive?working relationships

Functional Competencies:

• Attention to details
• Ability to make decisions that align with strategy, vision, and mission Marketing
• Ability to communicate the value of a product or service
• Ability to research innovative products
• Ability to communicate the value of a product or service research
• Knowledge of analytical tools and methods for undertaking research
• Understanding of basic public procurement principles

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Advanced degree in Business, Engineering or related discipline; Other degrees combined with business experience will also be considered.

Experience:

• Two (2) years of experience in business operations and/or marketing
• Minimum of one (1) year of experience in e-commerce
• Minimum of one (1) year of customer service/vendor relationship management
• Experience analyzing data and extracting informationfrom datasets
• Previous work experience within the UN System or similar organization is considered an asset
• Familiarity with the SDGs
• Experience working with e-commerce platforms
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office

Language:

• Excellent command of written and spoken English; working knowledge of other languages will be considered an asset

Application Procedure:

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• A cover letter (1 page maximum) explaining why you consider yourself the most suitable candidate for the role which addresses the required qualifications and evaluation criteria;
• CV (P11 form will be requested of short-listed candidates), indicating all experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Only Short-listed candidates will be asked by UNDP to submit the following:

Financial proposal - Duly completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using template which will be provided by UNDP and includes the financial proposal which includes “all-inclusive (*)” daily fee

(*) “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (excluding mission travel) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal

Incomplete applications will not be considered; please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Interviews for short-listed candidates may be conducted in order to assess candidates against the competencies outlined in the TORs.

Evaluation Criteria:

The Evaluation panel will conduct a cumulative analysis in selecting the best candidate(s) weighted on the basis of 70% for technical expertise and 30% for the financial proposal.

Individual consultants will be evaluated using the Cumulative Analysis methodology.

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant(s) whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;
• Technical Criteria weight: 70%;
• Financial Criteria weight: 30%.